OPINION
Page 5
Vol. XCV, No. 21-S
95 Years of Editorial Freedom
Managed and Edited by Students at
The University of Michigan
Editorials represent a majority opinion of the
Daily Editorial Board
Wasteful thinking
SEN. GILBERT DiNello (D-East Detroit) and Sen.
Harry DeMaso (R-Battle Creek) have introduced a bill
in the state Senate that would ban medical experimen-
tation on pet animals. Supporters of the bill, including the
Humane Society, argue that pet animals are not bred to be
used in medical research. They say research done on pet
animals causes a great deal of stress for them. They want
to force the University to buy animals specifically bred for
research or raise the animals themselves.
The welfare of animals used in research is an important
issue. But it is hard to see how this bill would protect
animals more. A large number of pet animals are put to
sleep each year when the owner or an adoptee can not be
found. It is a waste to put these animals to sleep and then
have to go out and buy specifically bred animals that will
eventually be put to sleep too.
Bio-medical research has greatly improved the lives of
both humans and animals alike. This research would not
be possible or would be greatly reduced if the University
was forced to breed their own animals.
The University currently buys animals from suppliers
licensed by the state and the federal government. The sup-
pliers obtain animals released by the pounds.
Supporters of the bill say there is a problem of stolen
animals being sold to pounds who sell them to suppliers of
colleges and universities. If there is a problem with
shelters sending money to people who leave pets on their
doorstep, then that's a problem with the animal pounds
and not the medical research community.
Overall, this bill is misguided and will not increase the
welfare of animals used in medical research. It will only
increase the waste of animal life. It is ironic that the
Humane Society would support such a bill.
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Tuesday, June 18, 1985
The Michigan Daily
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Drug tests in the work place
By John Ross LaRoche, manufacturer of Valium, reputedly America's
most abused prescription drug, uses pre-employment
WASHINGTON, D.C. - The nation's drug enforcers are urine analysis to screen out marijuana smokers.
honing a new tool in their often-losing war on drugs - SO DO CIGARETTE companies like Phillip Morris, and
wholesale drugttestingin the workplace distillers and breweries like Coors which gives "lie detec-
This past April, the Justice Department conceded that tor"teat to applicants - but allows employees to drink
its widely-publicized efforts to eradicate drugs at the beer on breaks.
source or in transit "had not broken the demand curve," One in every ten workers has a substance abuse
warned that users were to become a drug enforcement problem, according to NIDA, which estimates the cost to
priority for the first time in a decade. business at some $40 million in lost productivity and in-
THE DRAMATIC increase in drug testing of employees surance costs last year.
over the last few months confirms that users are now the In some government jobs, large-scale testing of em-
target. "Within a year or two, in order to get a good job, ployees has been the rule for a number of years. Begin-
you are going to have to be drug-free," says Michael ning in 1981, the military services, faced with spiraling
Walsh, pharmacology chief of the National Institute on drug use, began regular and random testing of all person-
Drug Abuse (NIDA). "This may be the ultimate preven- nel - the Navy examined 1.8 million urine samples last
tion device." year alone. Defense planners say this has cut drug use in
Drug testing has already had an impact in the work- the armed forced by 40 percent.
place. This made headlines when baseball commissioner DRUG TESTING is now mandatory for Detroit firemen,
Pete TUbsrmodh sugdgese mabay teti for a Washington D.C. policemen and postal workers in
Peter Uberroth suggested mandatory testing for all Philadelphia - where 60 percent of job applicants this year
players - prompting mutterings of a possible strike - but have handed in positive samples. The Federal Aviation
they are not the only working stiffs wrestling with the Administration has just issued guidelines for testing air
jissue. tafccnrlesadtePnao a none twl
The new Teamster national contract, covering 270,000 traffic controllersand the Peesgn has nounced it will
drivers, now includes on-the-job testing for the use of Not all pressure for teployoeswit c from inside the
ubmi to tbstn oe Members of railwa unionsat aust an bureaucracy - the Washington Legal Foundation has
helicopter plants, and contracts covering city transit petitioned the DEA to test its own agents.
workers, airline pilots, and utility plant employees now White House drug adviser Carleton Turner sees a day
contain drug testing provisions. when all federal employees will be screened. "I'd hate to
ONLY A FRACTION of those affected are union know that a public servant - whether a member of law
workers. According to Peter Bensinger, former head of enforcement or a nuclear reactor inspector - was using
the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), and now a drugs," he says. "We have to eliminate drugs in the work-
"substance abuse consultant" to some 50 corporations place. Not to do so would be to finance our own suicide."
and industry groups, fully a quarter of the nation's largest TO SHARPEN accuracy and avoid lawsuits most
firms now test for drug use - a five-fold increase over the testers now double-check positive samples with gas
last three years. Led by such giants as General Motors, chromotography. And new tests - involving saliva sam-
General Electric, and Mobil, a third of the top 35 corpor- ples and brainwaves - may soon be on the market. But
ations ask employees for urine samples or use com- critics say all such tests, accurate or not, might violate
parable tests to detect drugs in the workplace. constitutional guarantees against unreasonable scar-
IBM, which employs 240,000, last year instituted pre- ches and invasion of privacy.
employment screening for all applicants, from janitor to sI certsinly don't think people should go to work high,
vicepresdent Trnspot suh ~ says Detroit attorney George Washington, who has tsken
Geresundee Trunpulorstacompanies, s-has on ten drug testing cases, "but employers don't own em-
Greyhound, keep scrupulous tsbs on their workers - as ployees' off hours." And Daphne MacklIn, ACLU
do newspapers like the New York Times, San Diego Union lestv rfprsnti ndCalif thinks th CL f
and Miami Herald, which fired 18tas a result of testing this legislatce rep enta ive inon "hyeria - employers are
ynow assuming the functions of law enforcement."
Defense contractors such as General Dvnamics testo
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their employes So does E. F. Hutton. Manufacturersof
legal drugs test workers for illegal ones - Hoffman
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Ross wrote this for Pacific News Service.
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